US Finally Drops Security Council Veto, Allows Demand for Israeli Ceasefire

It’s finally happened. The US has backed down from defending Israel at the UN.

It had simply become too ridiculous. There is too much pressure.

Of course the US will continue sending weapons, so this is all just theoretical and/or symbolic.

The Guardian:

The UN security council has voted to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for the first time since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, after the US dropped a threat to veto, bringing Israel to near total isolation on the world stage.

The US abstained and the 14 other council members all voted in favour of the security council ceasefire resolution, put forward by the 10 elected council members who voiced their frustration with more than five months of deadlock between the major powers. Applause broke out in the chamber after the vote.

The text demanded “an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire”. It also demanded the release of hostages but did not make a truce dependent on them being freed, as Washington had previously demanded.

“This resolution must be implemented. Failure would be unforgivable,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres posted on X.

White House spokesman John Kirby later said that the vote did not represent a shift in US policy, but the resolution signaled a significant break between the Biden administration and the Israeli government – and represented a long-delayed show of international unity on Gaza after more than 32,000 Gazans have been reported dead, thousands more are missing, and UN agencies are warning that a major famine is imminent.

On Tuesday, a UN human rights expert will deliver a report calling for Israel to be placed under an arms embargo, on the grounds that it has carried out acts of “genocide” in Gaza.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said in her report, which has been seen by the Guardian, there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Israel was carrying out three of the five acts defined as genocide.

They can call for a weapons embargo, but that is a line the US will not cross. They are going to keep sending the weapons. They will go out there and say “oh yes, we now agree that there should be a ceasefire,” but it is totally politically nonviable for anyone in Washington to actually move to cut Israel off.

John Kirby has already said that the resolution is “non-binding.”

Meanwhile, the Republicans are all out there saying that the Democrats are abandoning Israel.

Big props to Donald Trump.

AP:

Former President Donald Trump said he would have responded the same way as Israel did after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas but urged the country to “finish up” its offensive in Gaza and “get this over with,” warning about international support fading.

“You have to finish up your war. You have to finish it up. You’ve got to get it done,” he said in an interview with Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom. “We’ve got to get to peace. You can’t have this going on, and I will say Israel has to be very careful because you are losing a lot of the world. You are losing a lot of support.”

Trump, who earlier this month became the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, brought up global criticism of Israel’s offensive even as he has repeatedly attacked President Joe Biden’s handling of the conflict.

According to the newspaper’s transcript of the interview, Trump said “Israel made a very big mistake” in releasing photos and videos of its offensive in Gaza, commenting the country’s public image is “in ruin.” A video shared of the interview does not show those comments.

“That’s a terrible portrait. It’s a very bad picture for the world,” Trump said. “I think Israel wanted to show that it’s tough, but sometimes you shouldn’t be doing that.”

I’m legitimately impressed by that.

We should continue to attack Donald Trump when he is supporting Israel. But if this is his narrative now, it’s going to be difficult for me to continue to claim he is the Jewish candidate.

I just report the facts. He’s changed what he was saying; he might change it again. I definitely support what he is saying now.

What I will not change my opinion on: the US election is fake, and the Jewish handpicked candidate will win the election.